Side A
Artist	Song
Teresa Stratas, as Lulu	empties her revolver into Sch÷n [Alban Berg, Lulu]
Janice Watson, as Tormentilla	gives the poisoned kiss to Amaryllus [Ralph Vaughn Williams, The Poisoned Kiss]
Lucia Popp, as Vixen	wrings the necks of the Hens [Leos Janacek, The Cunning Little Vixen]
Catherine Wyn-Rogers, as Jenny Diver	steals Macheath's guns and has him arrested [John Gay, The Beggar's Opera]
Maria Ewing, as Katerina	feeds Boris mushrooms laced with rat poison [Dmitri Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District]
Nicole Heaston, as Jackie	smashes the photographer's camera [Michael Daugherty, Jackie O]
Renata Scotto, as Abigail	condemns the Hebrews to death [Giuseppe Verdi, Nabucco]
Lisa Tyrrell, as Child	forces the Doctor to drown [Peter Maxwell Davies, The Doctor of Myddfai]
Birgit Nilsson, as SalomT	insists on the decapitation of John [Richard Strauss, SalomT]
Janice Felty, as Gloria	collects Nembutals for her suicide attempt [Tod Machover, Valis]
Joan Sutherland, as Norma	threatens Pollione with a dagger [Vincenzo Bellini, Norma]
Sara Fulgoni, as ThTrFse	threatens Laurent with a knife, then stabs herself [Tobias Picker, ThTrFse Raquin]
Berit Lindholm, as Cassandra	stabs herself, then hands dagger to Polyxena [Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens]
Montserrat CaballT, as La Gioconda	stabs herself [Amilcare Ponchielli, La Gioconda]
Mirella Freni, as Juliette	stabs herself [Charles Gounod, Romeo Et Juliette]
Kiri Te Kanawa, as Floria Tosca	plunges her dagger ito the chest of Scarpia, and shouts "This is the kiss of Tosca" [Giacomo Puccini, Tosca]
Guillemette Laurens, as CybFle	laments having turne Atys into a pine tree [Jean-Baptiste Lully, Atys]
Side B
Artist	Song	Buy

Comment:

This is a collection of operatic excerpts featuring
femmes fatales in lethal moments. Info in [brackets]is the composer
and title.

As you can imagine from the scene descriptions, these
excerpts tend to occur at intense points in the drama.
In fact, if you are not accustomed to opera, a lot
of it may sound like screaming.

Six of the tracks are in English. The rest are in
French, German, Italian, Russian, and Czech.
If you listen closely you can hear some useful phrases,
such as Salome demanding "Gib mir den Kopf des Jokanaan"
("Give me the head of John"), Boris calling Katerina
"slyukha" ("slut"), and Tosca's famous
"Questo F il bacio di Tosca," (since she had led him to
be expecting a smooch, not a stab).

OK, OK, I know there is hardly any classical music on
AOTM. And when there is it's like *never* opera.
So if you have even read this far, you have my sincere thanks.
But do note the presence of several composers from
outside the standard rep. In opera circles this is known
as "indie cred," ha, ha.

There will be no references to "The Sopranos."
However, if you are familiar with the operatic conventions
around voices and characterizations, you
could correctly guess
that almost of these singers are indeed sopranos.

Feedback: